Birds of Canada (banknotes)

Birds of Canada are banknotes of the Canadian dollar first circulated by the Bank of Canada in 1986 to replace the Scenes of Canada series. Each note features a bird indigenous to Canada in its design. The banknotes weigh 1 gram with dimensions of 152.40 by 69.85 millimetres (6.00 by 2.75 in). It was succeeded by the Canadian Journey Series introduced in 2001.

This was the first series to omit the $1 banknote, which was replaced by the $1 coin known as the loonie in 1987. It was the last series to include the $2 and $1,000 banknotes. The $2 note was withdrawn in 1996 and replaced by the $2 coin known as the toonie. The $1,000 note was withdrawn by the Bank of Canada in 2000 as part of a program to mitigate money laundering and organized crime.

The portraits on the front of the note were made larger than those of previous series. The $20, $50, $100, and $1000 banknotes had a colour-shifting metallic foil security patch on the upper left corner, an optical security device that was difficult to reproduce with the commercial reproduction equipment of the time. This was the last Canadian banknote series to include planchettes as a security feature.

This series was the first to include a bar code with the serial number. This allows the visually impaired to determine the denomination of a banknote using a hand-held device distributed by the bank of Canada for free via the Canadian National Institute for the Blind.

The Bank of Canada began preparations for design of this series in 1974. A 1981 Parliamentary committee recommending design features enabling visually impaired individuals to determine the denomination of a banknote influenced the design process for the banknotes. In 1983, the Bank of Canada chose to use "clear, uncluttered images" of Canadian birds for the reverse. This imparted on the banknotes additional security against counterfeiting, as the design had a "single, large focal point" that enabled easier detection of counterfeits compared to the complex designs of earlier banknote series.

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